Christmas Eve

So, I am a bit sad today - nothing too terrible though. You see, traditionally, in the evening, we go to the Christmas Eve Service at our church. That is nice, but the part I will miss the most, the part that IS Christmas Eve to me is what follows the Christmas Eve Service.
Every year (for at least the past 9 years), we go over to my parents' house. Together with my parents and the Jenks', we make our own salads from the famous Fadner salad buffet. Afterwards, we sit around, joking & talking, exchanging & opening gifts.
Not only am I sad because we miss everyone and because we cannot be at the Fadner's house this evening, but I am sad because this is the 1st year that Scott & Lacy (his fiancee) will be at the Fadner/Jenks bash. I would have love to hang out with them more too.

But ... we will have a good time. I think, we will get into our pj's, make lattes and read the Christmas story by the light of the Christmas tree lights.

To all of our family and friends: We love you. We miss you lots. And we love you even more. We look forward to skyping & web-caming you on Christmas Day.
Much love from all of us,
Diana, Lennon, Lydia & Jackson

Stranded in Las Vegas

Early last Sunday morning, our family began an unplanned trip to the East Coast for Lennon's Grandpa's funeral. It was wonderful to be with extended family, even if the reason was to remember Grandpa together.
We left early (again) on Wednesday morning to head back home to Carson City. Our trip back was supposed to consist of two flights - one from Philly to San Fransisco, and one from SF to Reno, and then we'd drive home. The Philly to SF flight had an unadvertised stop in Las Vegas, to drop off people & pick up up others. We didn't know about this stop until after we had booked the tix.
After a tenuous 6-hour flight to Vegas (during which our kids cried for the 1st 5!), we began descending & realized that we had missed our connecting flight in SF, and we weren't even in SF yet! (Don't know exactly what happened.) And it was snowing in Vegas - what?!
Anyways, we landed & got off the plane to stretch our legs for the hour before the plane took off again for SF. Not even 10 minutes after getting off the plane, and a flight attendant comes over the loudspeaker saying that all of the planes needed to be de-iced. In Vegas, they only have 1 de-icing plane & that they were running low on de-icer fluid. Our plane was 11th in line - fabulous!
L-o-n-g story short: We waited for over 1 hour to find out that we were stuck in Las Vegas. We waited for 2 hours for our luggage to come off the carousel. And then we waited for over 1 hour in 3 different lines to find out that we couldn't get a flight until Friday. We were stuck in Las Vegas for 2 nights.
So, we decided to make the best of it. We found an amazing deal at the Venetian on the Strip. This lavish hotel is designed to look like Venice, Italy. The first floor is the casino (of course, this is Vegas); the Grand Canal Shoppes takes up the entire 2nd floor; complete with the Grand Canal & authentic Italian gondolas, this shopping center includes fancy, high-end stores, restaurants & (our favorite) a bakery/coffee shop all set alongside the canal.
A perfect, unexpected, relaxing vacation.

Miracles do happen!

Today, I (with the kids in tow) was pricing diapers in Target. When Lydia spotted a package of Pull-Up training pants, she desperately wanted me to be them, because she wanted to wear undies like the girl in the picture on the package. I told her that we weren't going to buy those, BUT that she had undies at home that she could wear. For the rest of the afternoon, Lydia talked about going home, getting her undies, and sitting on the potty! Wow - I guess when a child is ready, he/she will potty train themselves!
Once we got home, Lennon and I put her on the new portable potty that we bought today, just for the occasion. After sitting on it for a while (with no apparent success), we let her play by the potty, while we sat by & watched her closely. One time while I wasn't watching her, I heard her grunt (her telltale sign for poopy). Jumping to action, I stripped her of undies & plopped her on the potty, despite her protests that she didn't want to sit on the potty. A moment later, we heard the wonderful sound of "plop" in the potty. (Sorry to all of you reading this who aren't parents. Someday, when you're a parent you'll understand!)
After much praise & the celebratory flush of the poopy down the toilet, Lennon took Lydia to the "Sticker Store" (WalMart) to pick out her long-awaited reward - gummie worms!
This whole potty-training has been a long, not-so-fun ordeal, with several hopeful starts and an equal number of disappointing stops. Now, I hope that Lydia will be proud of herself for being a "Big Girl" and doing her business on the "Big Girl Potty".

Here's what's new

So, what's new with us?
Jackson is now rolling over, though only in one direction. He rolls across the living room floor, getting stuck under a chair or next to a box. After hearing his distressed cries for help, I turn him around so he can roll the other way across the floor, before getting stuck again!
Jax is also cutting two teeth - the bottom front two. One is beginning to poke through; the other is just visible below the gum.

Lydia is enjoying being Mommy's big helper - she gets a clean diaper & wipes when I am changing the baby; she loves to get Jackson some toys (even though she takes them back to play with herself). She and I even made pumpkin bread and chocolate-peanut-butter-chip cookies the other day, and she helped make the batter, and 'helped' me clean up, by washing the beaters with her tongue. Too cute!

We found a church home - Freedom Vineyard Church at the Warehouse, about 10 minute drive from our apt. The church (also just known as The Warehouse) seems to support the "Out of the Box, Into our World" kind of thinking, which is what has been on our heart as of late. (I'll write more about that another time.) Lydia loves Veggie Patch - the kids program featuring VeggieTales. Through class, she has made a good friend, named Isaac (who is 4 yrs. old) and his sister, Emery (who is 18 mos. old). We also have become friends with their parents, and have hung out together with them several times - once, we played Settlers together!

It is starting to feel like home in our apt. The only places that we still have boxes are in the 2 bedroom closets. There are pictures on the walls. Though we could use some new ones of people (HINT, HINT!). However, in regards to people & friends, it still doesn't feel like home. We miss family and friends. People here are nice, but we haven't found them to be terribly outgoing or welcoming - neither in our apt. complex or at church. That's kinda hard, since we only have so much energy (after moving, getting settled, working & raising 2 kids) to take the 1st few steps to 'break into' a group of people & get to know them. I think we will be hosting an open house in November and one in December, inviting all of our neighbors in our building to drop in and get to know us (and each other). I just wish some people would reach out a bit more ...

To everyone 'back home', know that we love and miss you. And we love to hear from you, whether through a phone call, letter or e-mail. Much love to you all!

"Help! I need help."

A few nights ago, we set up the kids' bedroom, complete with Jackson' crib, Lydia's lofted bunkbed (with toys underneath) and stuffed animals arranged on the window sill.
Before bedtime, Lennon taught Lydia how to safely climb up the ladder into bed. Though we also taught her how to carefully climb down the ladder, we were still concerned about her climbing down without parental help. So, we instructed her to call us if she wanted to get down.
A little while after we tucked her into bed, we hear this little voice calling, "Help! I need help."
Worried that Lydia had fallen out of bed, we both rushed into the kids' bedroom, and found Lydia clinging to her ladder, crying for our help. While comforting Lydia, Lennon nudged me to look at the windowsill, now devoid of stuffed animals.
It seems that Lydia climbed down the ladder, scooped up a stuffed animal or two, climbed back up the ladder, deposited the animals in her bed. By the time she placed all of her 25+ animals in her bed, she was too tired to finish climbing the ladder to get into bed. Thus the call of "Help! I need help."
I guess she can climb up and down the ladder all by herself.

Interesting Things about Nevada

Here are some interesting things we have learned while living in Nevada:
(1) It's pronounced Ne-vah-da, with a long "ahh" sound - just like a true Rochesterian would pronounce it. :)
(2) Pedestrians have the right of way, even if they step out in front of a car without looking!
(3) Nevada does not have any recycling program. It 'kills' me to put the empty milk jug into the garbage can, not the recycling bin!
(4) Most people put snow chains on their tires in the winter (December to February). Carson City is nestled in the 'foothills' (smaller mountains) of the Sierra Nevada Range. If you want to drive almost anywhere, you need chains on the tires to create more traction on the snow on the steep mountain roads.
(5) We've heard that car inspections are basically a licensed person doing a once-over a your car. We'll find out for sure on Monday!
(6) In Carson City, the ratio of casinos to Starbucks is 1:1. (Not so much in Reno - many more casinos.)
(7) The weather is quite chilly at night (30's), but gets up into the 70's by noon. It makes it difficult to know how to dress for the day.

We'll let you know more interesting things as we discover them!

Moving In & Unpacking

Ahh ... unpacking. The moving truck finally arrived on Wednesday, October 22nd at 8:30am. There was much fiasco - the truck wouldn't fit into the apt. complex, and they had to rent a smaller truck (and charge us) to shuttle our stuff from the big truck to our apt.
After moving our stuff in (boxes everywhere) and assembling our furniture, the movers finally left at 3:30pm! The kids and I took a walk until Lennon got home from work - smart idea, considering the amount and craziness of the boxes everywhere!
A week later, we are pretty much moved in. Mostly just decorative & miscellaneous items in boxes that need to find homes.

Our bare apt. (before Wed.)

Here are some pics of our empty apt, that is before Wednesday (move-in day).
It is pretty spacious; I think it has even more square footage than our house in Rochester.

Our babies

We have 2 little kids.
Lydia (born in July of 2005) is now 3 yrs old, and is a bubbly, talkative, caring little girl. She loves books, playdoh, peanut butter sandwiches, and helping Mommy put the clothes into the washing machine. Lydia also loves to help out with her "Baby Jax", by giving him toys.
Jackson (born in June of 2008) is 4 months old. Jax (as we call him) loves being cuddled and loves to talk. Currently, Jackson enjoys putting his foot in his mouth - literally.
Look for pictures and more updates in the future!

Our wedding

Some of you (mostly the ones I re-connected with on Facebook) didn't know that Lennon & Diana got married. We did!
We met at Elim Bible Institute in 1999, and became good friends right away. I (Diana) found out that Lennon liked me, and thought it to be weird that my best friend would like me, so I ignored him for quite some time (namely 6-7 months). After a while, I was okay with being friends again, and that turned into 'good friends' again, and then I didn't have a good reason not to like him. :)
After we graduated from Elim, three weeks later, we got married. And that was about 6.5 years ago - in May of 2002, in Rochester, NY.

Trials & Joys

We found a washer & dryer! No more doing laundry for $2.25 a load - and with kids, we do a lot of loads!
Getting the unit to our apt was another story. U-Haul gave us much grief and run-around, because we had out-of-state driver's licenses. After many phone calls and trips to different U-Haul locations, we finally got a discount and were able to rent a truck.
While Lennon was picking the washer/dryer unit, I went to find the DMV. After following bad directions, then good directions, then missing the correct street, I finally got to the DMV to be treated gruffly and shoved a bunch of forms with MANY parameters to be done in order to have our car registered. Argh!
After that mess, Lennon had me meet him at Ashley Furniture in Reno (30 minutes north), and we picked out a wonderful mattress. (We had been sleeping on an air mattress for 2 weeks now. Better than the floor, but not the most comfortable long-term.)
So, it was a trying day, but it turned out okay, once we got into a very comfortable bed ... snore ....

Our adventure so far...

When Lennon & I arrived in Carson City, NV at 10:30 at night, we discovered that the key for our apt. had not been left out for us. So, we ended up calling the 24-hour maintenance guy to let us in. When we woke up the next morning, we looked around the apt. and discovered that things were not up-to-par for a luxury apt., nor had the customer service (Villas at Dolphin Bay) preceding our move been very good.
Since we had not signed a lease yet, we went over to look at another apt. complex - Parkway Manor. During our searches online, we liked Parkway Manor better; however, the price and amenities were better at the 1st apt. complex.
Let me tell you - the customer service at Parkway Manor was incredible! After viewing the apt., we felt like we were home! And then, the leasing agent told us that they were running a special. So, it turned out to be $150 cheaper (and much nicer-looking) than the 1st apt!
We signed the lease with Parkway Manor, and then went to Sacramento, CA for the night, since our apt wasn't ready for us yet. We slept in, wandered around IKEA finding items for our new home, and then picked up the kids (and Lennon's mom) at the airport after many delays.
Lennon began his new job the next day, and he loves it! (I'll have him write about it sometime.)
His mom stayed for a few days to help us get settled and adjusted a bit. And then, Thursday morning, we were on our own in our new city.

Lennon's new job

Back in the middle of August, we were at a standstill regarding Lennon's promotion within Starbucks. It appeared that Lennon could possibly be promoted to Assistant Manager after 6-12 more months of waiting, mostly due to the economy.
Because of that not-so-encouraging news, Lennon began browsing the job postings on the Starbucks internal website. He found a posting for a "roasting technician" in Carson City, NV.
We prayed and talked about for many, long hours before he applied online. One week later, he had two phone interviews. Two weeks and another phone interview, he was offered a job!
Then began the frantic packing and prepping of our house to sell. (It still hasn't sold.) And then more crazy packing as the moving date neared.
The moving truck came on Friday, October 10th, and Lennon and I left that day as well. We drove across 10 states in 3 days (38 hours). Lennon's mom flew out with the kids on Tuesday of the next week.
I believe that it was 9 weeks, from the time Lennon discovered the job posting to the day we left from NV. Wow! Well, we Fediws LOVE adventure!

Change is good.

There've been a lot of changes in our lives. To name a few: (1) Having a second baby (Jackson Elias) born in June, (2) Lennon taking a new job with Starbucks, and (3) Relocating to Carson City, Nevada, and (4) Leaving our family & friends in Rochester, NY (due to our relocation). That's our lives in a tiny, itty-bitty nutshell. Stay tuned for more details on the above events, as well as our day-to-day lives.